that term was coined by one of the speakers, great predecessors, tip o'neill, he was here and lit the michigan tree and he declared that it would be an emblem of peace for the nation and the world. and that's exactly the purpose among many that this tree rements. -- represents. since 1970, every capitol christmas tree has been cut from national forests from across our great country. this year,it is 73 feet. engel man spruce has been cut from the white river national forest in meeker, colorado. and this has been a statewide celebration when we were chosen as the state from which the tree would come this year and i'm really glad to be here with you tonight. i want to express my gratitude to the ute tribes that are represented here today. their homelands were 1,500 years, they lived in these lands. i would like to acknowledge the utes, because they are a wonderful part of our state and[applause] >> i have a long speech and normally, i would shorten it because it would be cold out here. for every degree under zero, your speech has to be reduced by one minute, but we do have a wonderful warm evenin